Homemade Pizza with Almond Flour Pizza Crust (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • GAPS)

 

Who doesn't love pizza?  Pizza definitely used to be one of the foods I ate the most.  Plus, there isn't too many things you can order and have it delivered to your door in about an hour to eat for dinner.  Talk about convenient.  Once I did an overhaul on my diet though, commercial pizza had to go.  I was so sad about it.  For a long time, I just figured pizza was one of those things I just wouldn't be eating any more (Aside from that rare once in a while if I was not at home and gave in, but I would inevitably regret it, as my stomach wasn't used to it). Then I started to experiment a little with different types of crusts.  You can find my flax seed version HERE from about a year and a half ago.  It's pretty good (I actually loved it at the time, having not had pizza in forever), but it definitely wasn't anywhere close to the pizza I missed and my husband really wanted nothing to do with it.  So for a long time, I had given up and just considered pizza to be something I would just have to miss.  Boo.

I've learned a few tricks since then though.  I decided to give it another go and started experimenting with it again.  I looked up a few recipes for pizza crust and found some that I liked.  I tried out a couple of them and with some minor alterations I came up with a crust that I love. What was even more shocking was that my husband likes it too.  Infact, when I told him I was making it again tonight, he was pretty pumped about it.  When I added that I would be making it with pepperoni and homemade sausage, he got even more excited!

In a bowl, I whisked together some almond flour, parmesan cheese, salt, baking soda, parsley and garlic powder.

In another bowl, I whisked together an egg with a cup of sour cream (you would use yogurt here to make it gaps friendly).

Then I poured my wet ingredients into my bowl with my dry ingredients and mixed them together.

I mixed them together until it formed a dough (kinda).  This is some sticky stuff.

Divide your dough in half and spread it out onto parchment paper on two cookie sheets.  I'm gonna be honest here, this "dough" is not really all that fun to work with.  With the advice of the original recipe, I used a spatula to spread it around.  If you try to use your fingers or anything else, it just gets all globby and sticky and if you try to use wax paper or anything else on the top of it so you can roll it out, then it just clings to it when you try to pull it off.  With a little patience though, you can use the spatula to spread it around. It won't be perfect. I popped it into the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

 

Then I whipped up some pizza sauce.  You can make your sauce however you want or use some pre-made sauce.  To make mine, I used Eden Organic Crushed Tomatoes, and added some garlic, minced onion, salt, pepper, oregano and parsley.  I just dumped it all in until I liked how it tasted.

 

I then chopped up all my veggies. I used black olives, white onions, green peppers and mushrooms.

I sauteed my mushrooms in some butter and then set them aside to cool.

I found some uncured pepperoni at the grocery store the other day.  I was pretty excited. We have been eating Applegate's lunch meats for quite some time now, but I never even knew they made pepperoni.  No preservatives or nitrates added, no antibiotics used and the animals are raised humanely.  I really like this company.  The pepperoni circles are really big though, so I cut them up into fourths.

Once my pizza crusts were nice and toasty, I pulled them out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes.

Then I added the sauce.

Then I added some cheese. I used a mix of parmesan, romano, fontina and provolone cheeses.

Then I piled on my ingredients.  One pizza was half veggie and half pepperoni and sausage.  The other pizza was a supreme with meats and veggies.

I had made sausage earlier that day.  I made about 4 lbs worth and put most of it in the freezer to use as needed.  I cooked up a few patties to crumble and use on top of our pizza.  If you have ever considered making your own sausage, you should try this recipe.  It's honestly some of the best sausage I have ever tried and it's so much cheaper (and healthier) then buying the pre-made stuff. Plus it's pretty awesome to have it on hand.  You just pull out a few and can throw them on the stove top while still frozen and cook them in about ten minutes.

Another look at the pile of yummy ingredients...

Then I added another layer of cheese.

I put them back in the oven for about 10 minutes until everything was all hot and melty.

 

I am just so excited to have figured out a pizza recipe that I really like AND that the munchkin and my super picky husband enjoys.

Here's a close up so you can see how the crust turned out.  The thinner you spread it, the better.  It has kind of a mealy texture, like a chef boyardee pizza (if you ever made one of those).  My mom used to make them all the time when we were kids.   The crust holds together fantastically and crisps up really nice.

HOMEMADE PIZZA

(sugar free • gluten free • low carb • GAPS)

Pizza Crust Ingredients:

• 3 C Almond Flour
• 1/2 C Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Parsley
• 1/2 tsp Oregano
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda (omit for GAPS)
• 1 C Sour Cream (or 1 C yogurt for GAPS friendly version)
• 1 Egg

Toppings (Ideas)

• Pizza Sauce (tomato sauce, garlic powder, minced onion, salt, pepper, oregano, parsley)
• Shredded Cheese of your choice
• Sausage
• Pepperoni
• Onions
• Black olives
• Green peppers
• Mushrooms
• Oregano
• Parsley

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together Dry Ingredients in a medium bowl.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream (or yogurt) with an egg.
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix together with a hand mixer until well combined.
5. Spread two pieces of parchment paper out onto two cookie sheets.
6. Divide dough in half and put one half on each cookie sheet.
7. Spread dough carefully with spatula.  Its very sticky and more like a batter, so just take your time and spread a thin, even layer out over the cookie sheet.
8. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until it has turned very light brown all over and the edges are nice and crispy.
9. Spread tomato sauce over crusts.
10. Add thin layer of cheese.
11. Layer desired toppings over cheese.
12. Add another layer of cheese.
13. Sprinkle with any additional seasonings you may like, I like to add more oregano and parsley.
14. Return to oven and cook for another 10 minutes or so until everything is melted and hot.
15. Enjoy!

If you do make this pizza, please let me know how it turned out and what you think!  

I would LOVE to hear some of your favorite topping combinations??

This is a part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday and the Healthy Home Economist's Monday Mania Carnival and Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesday.